Assessing teachers' multicultural and egalitarian beliefs: The Teacher Cultural Beliefs Scale

Presented the newly developed Teacher Cultural Beliefs Scale (TCBS) which assesses teachers' beliefs about dealing with cultural diversity in the classroom. Two studies were conducted to test the measurement model and reliabilities in different samples and to examine the construct validity of its two subscales Multiculturalism and Egalitarianism. Study 1 was a cross-sectional study which involved 433 student teachers with a mean age of 28 years. Subjects completed the TCBS during the beginning of their first or second student teaching year. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor structure and measurement invariance of the scale. Study 2 involved 340 teaching and educational-science college students with a mean age of 25 years who completed a shortened version of the TCBS as well as German versions of the behavioral subscale from the Motivation to Control Prejudiced Reactions (MCPR) scale, an adapted version of the Pluralism and Diversity Attitude Assessment (PADAA), and scales to measure acculturation and authoritarianism. Results showed that the two TCBS subscales are valid in measuring motivation to control prejudiced behavior although these two beliefs may differentially affect prejudice. In conclusion, beliefs regarding multiculturalism and egalitarianism were found to have distinct and different approaches to dealing with diversity in the classroom.

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